Sweet Revenge

Overlord Truziovore led the 16th division of the 862nd Mobile Infantry group, one of 18 such units on a sweep of the Quinilius Vortex searching for the Dark Eldar Raider group that had defeated Overlord Pethepaeris’ force a few days earlier. Like Pethepaeris he remained aboard a Night Scythe in reserve, in this case the NNV Jetstream, but unlike him he deployed stronger ground forces to draw out the enemy.

By using mainly warriors he hoped to appear a weaker, more tempting target*: His ploy worked. The enemy Dais of Destiny with Vect and his bodyguard aboard appeared flanked by two raiders, the one facing our left had Kabalite warriors aboard, the one on our right bore incubi.

*The slight and possibly obvious flaw in this tactic was that he did in fact present a weaker, more tempting target

Also facing us, a unit of jetbikes on the left and a flight of scourge in the centre. The enemy held objectives three and six deep in their deployment zone at this early point. We held objectives two and five, with objectives one and four in the neutral area between us.

Truziovore’s deputy Lord Utima led Alpha squad, ten warriors on the left; a cryptek led Beta squad, nine warriors to his right; another led Omega squad, nine warriors holding objective two; on the right flank holding objective five Delta Squad, nine more warriors and a cryptek with a voltaic staff and lightning field. Squad Epsilon, behind the left hand warriors in reserve comprised seven immortals led by a fourth cryptek, this one with a voltaic staff.

Utima was armed with a gauntlet of fire and the other crypteks had eldritch lances. Providing heavy support in the centre, the annihilation Barge NNV Flawless Thrust armed with tesla destructors and gauss cannon. Behind our right flank lay three wraiths with whip coils. Aboard the Jetstream in reserve, a fifth cryptek armed with an abyssal staff and ten deathmarks accompanied the overlord. Total force strength was 1498 including a 475 strong reserve.

Our initial objectives included numbers one, four and the most distant, six, plus three others. The enemy targeted objectives three and five, the former of which they already held. They began their attack before dawn, but despite their night vision they only picked off a couple of warriors with their long range weapons but did kill the cryptek in squad delta. They positioned their left hand raider to take objective one and their jetbikes took number four which scored them a victory point for holding four objectives to our two.

We advanced in general but our fire was hampered by the darkness. Despite this we advanced the Flawless Thrust towards objective four in the centre at speed, it already having jinked to avoid a dark lance barrage. All its shots against the left hand raider went wild, but the eldritch lance of squad beta bit home destroying it and 60% of its kabal passengers. First blood to us, and the very destruction of the raider also scored us one of our non objective victory points.

Little else occurred, our wraiths failing to assault the reavers in the centre. Utima failed to reach objective one with his unit’s run for which he had sacrificed the possibility of wiping out the kabal warriors huddled in the crater left by their destroyed transport. Two all at the end of the first turn as dawn broke at last.

The enemy attacked again, the Dais of Destiny moving left to try and evade the lances, the kabalite warriors seizing objective one. Hellions deep struck against our left threatening Utima’s warriors but the scourge it was that made the breakthrough, destroying the Flawless Thrust from their deep position with a long range dark lance. Although wraiths, warriors and reapers were caught in the blast, ironically only a reaper was destroyed.

The jetbikes, hellions, kabal warriors and the crew of the Dais of Destiny all fired on squad alpha who took heavy losses, but aided by Utima’s resurrection orb these were kept to 30% after initially nearly all the warriors were felled. One victory point to the enemy this turn for holding objective three again.

We now took objectives four and one, Utima’s unit assaulting successfully the kabal warriors despite the difficulties of assaulting into terrain and a gravitic field generator. The trio of wraiths took the other as our other troop units in the centre continued to slowly advance. The hellions had also taken 60% losses and the Jetstream arrived on the centre right and engaged the enemy raider there only damaging it despite multiple hits.

The night scythe’s passengers disembarked and marked the incubi aboard the raider, our other units engaged the bikes and Dias of Destiny causing damage to it. Two victory points to us for the objectives putting us three four ahead at this point.

The enemy now moved to concentrate on our overlord and his deathmarks; the Dais of Destiny closing and the incubi disembarking to assault. The bikes tore across the field again to the south east corner depleting our deathmarks as they did so. We lost more than half of them plus the cryptek, but regeneration returned the unit to seven out of twelve.

The assault went in and though a few incubi fell to overwatch the unit was destroyed leaving the wounded Overlord to flee and be destroyed despite having drawn his challenge with the Klaivex. However, both he and the cryptek regenerated. The last hellions meanwhile were destroyed by overwatch attacking Alpha squad.

The scourge meanwhile failed to shoot down the Jetstream despite the skyfire targeting systems of their objective and were reduced to two as the Jetstream targeted them in turn. The gauss fire of our Beta squad wrecked the Dais of Destiny despite their lance shot missing this time, forcing Vect and his bodyguard to disembark. The reavers were reduced to two by fire from warriors and immortals but continued to evade much of our fire with a resilience that was increasingly frustrating.

The wraiths assaulted and destroyed the few remaining incubi after three including the Klaivex had been destroyed by the Cryptek’s abyssal staff. The incubi’s morale broke and the wraiths actually caught them though their consolidation was minimal. The morale break scored us a point taking the score to three five to the Necrontyr.

In what would prove the final turn the pesky bikes now killed the heroic cryptek that had failed to destroy the last raider in a possibly illegal assault. This overflight attack earned a victory point for a character kill. The enemy bodyguard felled Truziovore as he headed for objective six, but again he regenerated. Vect then assaulted him and for the second time his mindshackle scarab defence failed, sealing our overlord’s fate. This time, he stayed down and did not regenerate.

This gave a second victory point this turn to the enemy. To add insult to injury, a third point was scored for destroying two units in assault. The score was now six five to the Dark foe. The enemy still had the majority of their HQ bodyguard intact, Vect who had taken one wound, two bikes to the north west, two scourge, skulking in the ruins around objective three where they had spent the entire battle, and the damaged raider that lay on the eastern side of the battlefield annoyingly continuing to jink potentially fatal hits from our eastern troop units.

We needed two points to win, and the wraiths immediately obliged scoring two moving to take objective six and gaining linebreaker at the same time whilst our other troops moved to obtain better shooting angles and/ or range. Incredibly all our fire this turn produced no enemy casualties as the dark Eldar jinked, went to ground or just plain saved the hits we inflicted, nevertheless, seven six to us at the close.

The enemy had two reavers left, seven of Vect’s guards, the wounded Warlord himself, two scourge and the badly damaged Raider. They had lost the other five units committed. Estimated loss from a force of 1500: Perhaps 1000.

We had lost our Overlord*, two of five crypteks, the deathmark squad, the Flawless Thrust and five warriors, all but one from Alpha squad, the other from Beta. The Wraiths, Jetstream, Omega and Epsilon squads were unscathed.** Losses were 565 from a deployment of 1498, a little under 38%. Lord Utima was the ranking survivor. Revenge was ours, and sweet it was!

*Three times actually, thank the gods for regeneration!**Delta squad had lost no warriors, just its cryptek